Machine harvested cotton contains undesirable foreign material primarily comprised of soil particles, plant parts, various types of “trash”, and other non-cotton materials. After harvesting, the unprocessed cotton (which includes commingled foreign material) is taken to a cotton gin for processing. One common device used for this process comprises a jet lint cleaner, which utilizes a high volume of air moving through a specialized ducting system at a high rate of speed. A sectional schematic of the conventional (prior art) jet cleaner 10, is shown in FIG. 1. The jet lint cleaner 10 separates the cotton lint from the denser foreign materials through an inertial separation process.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, commingled lint and foreign materials are conveyed into the jet lint cleaner 10 by an incoming air stream (schematically represented by the arrow 12). The incoming air stream 12 is drawn through an incoming duct 14 by a suction means (preferably a fan) that is that is in communication with the outgoing duct 16. As the air stream 12 approaches a discharge aperture 18, the velocity of the air stream 12 increases as a result of the decrease in the cross-sectional area of the duct 14. The negative pressure created by the suction in the outgoing duct 16 results in supplemental air (schematically shown as the arrow 20) being drawn into the outgoing duct 16. The incoming air stream 12 (comprising commingled lint and foreign materials) meets the supplemental air 20 at the discharge aperture 18. At the discharge aperture 18, the cleaned cotton lint (schematically shown as the arrow 22) turns upward into the outgoing duct 16, as the foreign material (schematically shown as the arrow 24) having higher density than the lint 22, is discharged through the discharge aperture 18. The opening of the discharge aperture 18 can be increased or decreased by the adjustment mechanism 26 to provide more or less cleaning.
Although conventional jet lint cleaners 10 are reasonably effective, they are generally inefficient. For example, in the conventional cleaner shown in FIG. 1, the discharged foreign material 24 frequently mixes with the supplemental air 20 so that the incoming air is contaminated by the discharged material 24. Further, there is no management or control of the incoming air 20 so that there is no ability to control/optimize the flow path or flow volume of supplemental air 20 in response to changes in the nature and characteristics of the harvested cotton crop.
The need exists for a more efficient lint cleaning system. The system described herein enables a user to exert greater control over the supplemental air 20 entering the jet air cleaner 10. The system also enables a user to segregate the incoming supplemental 20 air from the foreign material 24 that is discharged from the system.